Phoenix universe could rebuild itself after cosmic rip

Far in the future, once dark energy has ripped even atoms apart, new structures may yet arise from the ashes of destruction

By Lisa Grossman

THERE’S a lone ray of hope in one of the most calamitous and violent views of our cosmos’s future. Even after dark energy – the mysterious entity speeding the universe’s expansion – has ripped up galaxies, planets and atoms, there can be revival.

A new model for the future of the universe, known as the “quasi rip”, proposes that new structures can rise, phoenix-like, from the ashes, offering a form of cosmic reincarnation. “Our universe has a chance to be rebuilt from the ashes after the terrible rip,” says Hao Wei of the Beijing Institute of Technology in China, the leader of the team behind the quasi-rip idea. The first glimmer of a possible revival after cosmic ripping, the idea may comfort anyone spooked by the prospect of our universe ending forever.

Though no one knows exactly what dark energy is, the ultimate fate of the universe depends on its distribution throughout space, and whether this will change as the universe evolves. Most think the density will remain constant, with the expansion continuing to accelerate at the same rate as now. The implications of this for the far future would be a rather slow “heat death” in which galaxies drift from each other, and stars run out of fuel and burn out. Though space-time itself would remain, the universe would be cold, dark and featureless.